Badminton Age Classifications

Effective 01 September 2015, Badminton Alberta has implemented new names for the junior age classifications:

to be eligible for u11 - all participants must be born in 2005 or later;

to be eligible for u13 - all participants must be born in 2003 or later;

to be eligible for u15 - all participants must be born in 2001 or later;

to be eligible for u17 - all participants must be born in 1999 or later;

to be eligible for u19 - all participants must be born in 1997 or later.

For the duration of 2015 an athlete can't turn the age of the category in which they are competing.

Badminton Alberta to align with BWF and Pan Am Federations on 01 January 2016

Effective 01 January 2016, Badminton Alberta will realign the junior age classifications to fall in-line with the Gregorian calendar, which is used by the BWF and Pan Am Badminton Federations. The new season of play will begin 01 January and finish on December 31 of each season.

to be eligibile for u11 - all participants must be born in 2006 or later;

to be eligible for u13 - all participants must be born in 2004 or later;

to be eligible for u15 - all participants must be born in 2002 or later;

to be eligible for u17 - all participants must be born in 2000 or later;

to be eligible for u19 - all participants must be born in 1998 or later.

Simply put an athlete can't turn the age of the category during the year of the competition. The proposed changes will allow athletes the opportunity to participate in their respective age category for the entire 12 months. The change will also provide more accurate rankings, as only eligible athletes will be appear in the provincial ranking lists.

It should be noted that Badminton Canada is working on a transition plan to move from u20 to the BWF's u19 age category, which will remove one year of junior eligibility. This will take 1-2 years to implement. More information to follow from the national office on this matter.

Playing Up

If you are an experienced player and want to play in an older age category, you may do so, however, you do so at your own risk. If the tournament is played at different venues, you may run the risk of having conflicitng match times, which will be solved by defaulting you in one of the events. Therefore you may consider entering in ONE age category per tournament, to avoid such situations. If the tournament is played at one venue you may not be eligible for the normal amount of rest in between matches, as to not slow up the schedule for the masses for the decision of a few. We therefore ask for your copperation and hopefully can reciprocate.

Partner Ineligible

If you find out that your doubles or mixed doubles partner isn't eligible to play in your age category, you must:

Play up in all events so you can still play with your partner(s); or

Choose a new partner so you can stay in your age category; or

Not enter a doubles event

Masters Age Classification

The Masters age classifications in singles, doubles and mixed doubles in Canada are: